The great sock giveaway

In January of 2007, coincidentally enough the same time that Barack Obama was planning a run for the White House, I made the decision to make socks for the entire year and give all of them away. I was just starting the Socks that Rock sock club (which I did for 2 years). I wanted to see how many socks I could make, have them all be different patterns, and then give them away all at the same time. So, I started knitting. And as I finished each new pair of socks, I put them in a drawer. I knew most of the socks that were there, but forgot exactly how many I had made. The one exception was when a friend asked me to make socks for someone who was very ill, and we were not sure how he would do (he is great now by the way, and wears my socks whenever he knows that he will see me). January 2008 came, and I seemed to be too busy with life to get it together to pull all of the socks out and mail them off. So, I kept knitting through 2008. Sock knitting was interrupted by sweaters and shawls, mittens and life. But still the drawer kept getting fuller.

At the beginning of this month, I pulled all of the socks out and laid them out on a table

I made little pieces of paper with names of those that I wanted to send socks to, and started matching the sock up with the recipient. Much to my surprise, I initially did not have enough people for all of the socks. I told my husband that I did not have as many friends as I thought. So, I kept them out on the table, rearranged the tags, and kept adding. Then, I suddenly found that I had more names than socks, and I had the difficult task of pulling names out. Never fear though, those people are on the list of the next recipients. I pinned the name tags to the socks and took them out a couple of times to look at the matches. My family was quite impressed with all of my sock knitting.

So today, I put together the letter and placed it with a pair of socks, addressed all of the packages, and took them to the post office. The lady at the post office commented that many of the packages were to people in the neighborhood. I said that sometimes it was nicer to get a package in the mail. I also did not want to deliver these personally. Now I have given the US Post Office a huge leap of faith that all of the packages will be delivered. On my route, that would be a dubious task indeed, but I do not think that anyone is on my delivery route.

Here is the note that I sent along, with the fan photo of the socks shown above:

To my wonderful friends and family:

I started making socks in the early winter of 2007 and I promised myself to give all of the socks that I made during that year away.I had planned on mailing them out last January, but the winter got away from me.That allowed me to add to my giveaway pile during 2008.I started this project when Obama was a little known senator seeking the presidency, and I cannot think of a more fitting time to send these off than when we now can say “President Obama”!

You all have been in my thoughts, and consequently in my knitting, over the past 2 years.My well wishes and prayers are in every stitch of these socks.

To those whom I have cheered alongside during the good times

To those whom I worried with during the difficult times

To my sisters (including marilyn and anita with spirit socks)

To friends new and old

To everyone who is there with an email, note, visit, coffee or wine (especially wine)